There was a point during the December 2nd matchup between the Dallas Mavericks and OKC Thunder where the Mavs had scored 30 unanswered points. There is an old adage to the tune of “It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish.” Clearly, that is a proverb the Mavs believe in, as this scoring and defensive stand came in the fourth quarter. The Mavs trailed and they knew they needed something special if they were going to pull out the win. While they ultimately lost, their fourth quarter was nothing short of spectacular, outsourcing their opponent 36-19.
Achievement bereft of context is meaningless, so allow me to contextualize. Going into the fourth quarter, the scoreboard read 107-84 in favor of the Thunder. In the modern NBA, 20+ point leads generally mean nothing, the prominence of the three ball ensuring a team is never really out of a game until the closing minutes. The Mavs know this well, and they were unbothered staring down their 23 point deficit.
Dallas has the 7th best offense in the NBA, thanks in large part to the one-man offense of Luka Doncic. When the Mavericks are missing key pieces like Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Maxi Kleber, they rely even more heavily on their brightest star. We’ve covered Luka before, but he was brilliant during their 30-0 stretch.
As per usual, he was the largest reason Dallas stormed back into the game. Watch the video below to see how he did it.
If you’ve seen the box score, then you know the Mavs go on to lose the game. But the run to put them up 6 points with just over four minutes to play was historic. There has never been a larger scoring run in the play by play era (which started in 1996). Absolutely the stuff of legends. Despite the loss, the Mavs played the best quarter of attacking basketball that I’ve ever seen.
And they played well defensively! Lively was lively, Luka made plays, guys were rotating with conviction. The Mavs’ defense has been subpar all season, but they showed that when they are locked-in, they can defend anyone AND score in bunches. If they put those principles together before season’s end, they’ll present major problems in the West.
As a unit, they more than earned the Black Hole Hoops nod for week 6 of NBA action.
Full Court Dime 